Sosa/Reilly feud

[Dr T Non-Fan]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0702/1401511.html

Sosa said he was set up. I think Sosa opened his mouth and set himself up.
I think we should ask them all to get tested (if that's what "we" want). We're allowed to ask. We're allowed to vote with our wallets.

Why does Sosa think he'll get in trouble for taking a medical test? There are no rules against it. Maybe he thinks there are.

I agree with Reilly: it would be great PR for Sosa to take and pass the test. He'd get more product endorsements. Probably take some away from fellow union members.

[VP]

Great move by Reilly. I love it.

[Quasi]

It certainly makes it look like Sosa has something to hide....at least to a cynic like me. If I were clean and knew that many of my peers were not I would seriously consider taking the bait.

[Extreme Extremist]

Who cares if Sosa takes Steroids? It's his body. Baseball is just a game (and a boring one at that), not something to be taken seriously. Reilly is a bit of a douche; another idiot who reports on men playing games. What a childish way to make a living. Sports reporters are next to welfare recipients on useless spectrum.

[Elisha]

Who cares if Sosa takes Steroids? It's his body. Baseball is just a game (and a boring one at that), not something to be taken seriously. Reilly is a bit of a douche; another idiot who reports on men playing games. What a childish way to make a living. Sports reporters are next to welfare recipients on useless spectrum.

Yes, but not really. Reilly is entertainment, plain and simple. He is part of the circuses from "bread and circuses". Although I agree with much of your opinion of him, I do enjoy reading him occasionally when I'm waiting in an office. But, I don't personally subscribe to SI. The fact that there is a sizable portion of the population willing to fork over money to SI makes him not quite so useless.

[Pseudolus]

What Sosa has to lose (assuming he'd test clean) would be the heat he'd take from his fellow unionized millionaires. The ones that are dirty don't want the extra pressure on them, and the ones that are clean don't want to look like they're giving the owners anything for free, especially at a time when the potential for a strike is close on the horizon.

[Botsy]

Sammy and Pseudolus are right. He should not get tested until everybody does. He does not have to prove that he doesn't dope just because this reporter challenged him.

Let's say he did go get tested and is clean. What happens? Sammy's clean, but what about Barry. So, Barry gets tested. Well, Barry's clean, but what about Thome, Giambi and so on. Just a bunch of players having accusations thrown at them. It's a bunch of crap.

I don't think this makes Sammy look bad, it makes him look smart for not biting.

[Dr T Non-Fan]

He says he's clean, and people don't believe him. People will start not believing what he says about the products he's endorsing. If I were a product seller, I'd ask for drug tests before allowing someone to pitch my products.
The rule is not, "No drug testing ever." It's "No forced drug testing by MLB for no reason." Reilly is not MLB. If Sosa is clean, he would be annointed "The cleanest man in baseball."
Moral: Don't go saying you're clean if you don't want people openly challenging it (applies only to public persona).

Morgan's doing a chat and defending Sosa, too. He also said that Boone was MVP because he drove in runs (that would be actual MVP (though less deserving than Giambi) Ichiro on base over 200 times last year, yet Boone only drove in 100 RBI). So, Morgan's an idiot, so his opinion about Sosa is likely to be idiotic as well.

[Botsy]

He says he's clean, and people don't believe him.

I believe him. I have no reason not to except that he is a great ball player. He seems to always be happy (except when being challenged on steroids) and is never hurt. Two things that that are very hard to do when on steroids.

I hope he, nor anybody else, gives in to the pressure to be tested. It's not in his/their interest. If baseball thinks this issue will cause them to lose fans, hence money, they will come up with a better solution than testing the best players first and working their way down the list the way the media would.

People will start not believing what he says about the products he's endorsing.

People believe what he says about the product's he's endorsing?

[Dr T Non-Fan]

1. I didn't say no one believed him. Your believing him doesn't change most people's opinions.
2. I think he's on something. Something that's legal, that's performance enhancing, and that's bound to cause a stir should it be found out. I suspect HGH, although he has no medical reason to take it.
3. Please fix that near-homophonic error, if it truly is an error. It drastically affects the interpretation of your opinion.
4. If enough people don't believe his endorsement of a product, he wouldn't have been chosen as a spokesperson. (Of course, this assumes some economically-defined rational behavior on the product's makers.)

[Dizzy Atmosphere]

It's pretty clear to me that Reilly set Sosa up. Reilly's attributing Sosa's reaction to 'roid rage in subsequent interviews gives the lie to Reilly's "concern" for Sosa's image. Why am I not surprised that Jim Gray is siding with Reilly on this one?

The best line I saw about this was on the Baseball Primer website. Instead of peeing in a cup for Reilly and driving it to a clinic, Sosa should have peed on Reilly and told him to drive himself to the clinic.

[Kid Rock]

Last night, my wife had asked me to go through some boxes in order to get rid of a bunch of books. In one of the boxes was a scrapbook from my junior year in high school, notably the soccer box scores from my games. I guess I never got around to trimming everything down, so in a couple of cases, I had an entire sports section from the fall of 1985. There was a large article about the players criticizing Peter Ueberoth's proposed voluntary drug-testing plan. The players were very much against it because it was so unclear about what would be accomplished, especially since they were baseball players and not surgeons. Here we are 17 years later with nothing changed.

Sosa would take some heat from the Union. So WHAT! It's time that some of the big shots set the standards and DEMAND that players be tested. If a superstar is clean, they have NOTHING to lose. In fact, I think they could benefit from it through endorsements.

That aside, Rick Reilly has been sliding for a while. I used to enjoy reading his articles before, but don't read him anymore.

[Abducens]

Rick Reilly? He's great. Hey, remember his column on Tiger Woods? Man, I loved that one.

[Botsy]

Sosa would take some heat from the Union. So WHAT! It's time that some of the big shots set the standards and DEMAND that players be tested. If a superstar is clean, they have NOTHING to lose. In fact, I think they could benefit from it through endorsements.

He wouldn't just take heat from the Union, but from everyone in it too, which happens to consist of every player in the MLB.

[Pseudolus]

Interesting:USA Today poll questions
Players were polled between June 12-23, with 556 of 750 players answering at least one question:

Would you accept independent testing for steroids and performance enhancing drugs?
Yes 79% (432)
No 17% (91)
Depends on if union gives OK 4% (21)

What portion of players use drugs?
All 0 (0%)
More than half 10% (55)
Half 4% (20)
Fewer than half 75% (395)
None 3% (14)
No opinion 8% (43)

Do players feel pressured to take drugs?
Strongly agree 7% (33)
Agree 37% (178)
Disagree 34% (164)
Strongly disagree 11% (54)
Don't know 12% (58)



http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0707/1403100.html

[Patience]

The only strartling number is that 14 felt that none takes drugs. Do they actually believe that? Even if you believe it is small, how can anyone believe there is no one?

[Kid Rock]

Sosa would take some heat from the Union. So WHAT! It's time that some of the big shots set the standards and DEMAND that players be tested. If a superstar is clean, they have NOTHING to lose. In fact, I think they could benefit from it through endorsements.

He wouldn't just take heat from the Union, but from everyone in it too, which happens to consist of every player in the MLB.

I think saying everyone in the union would give Sammy heat is a bit over-stating it. Based on the poll directly below the post, most players favor testing. I would be willing to bet a large majority of clean players would certainly favor testing, giving up the stupid position issue in order to get rid of some of the cheaters, thereby enhancing their own status. The privacy part is a joke since employers all over the country drug test employees.

[Botsy]

Sosa non-believers:

If Sammy missed out on his chance to capitalize on his cleanliness, why hasn't someone else stepped up and taken a test? How about A-Rod, Giambi, Thome or any other slugger? Wouldn't they reap benefits from it?

[gloid]

As far as the union goes, Sosa can't really do anything to antagonize the union right now because of the possibility of an imminent work stoppage. The union needs to present a united front. We'll have to see what happens when (if?) they come to an agreement with the owners on this. If there is no drug testing included in the agreement, then Sosa and others could go ahead and "prove" their innocence. But why should they have to? There is a principle there - the whole innocent until proven guilty thing.

I do think Sosa was setup by Reilly. How would you feel if some knucklehead reporter wanted to get you to take a drug test just so he could get his name on an article about it? But we can't ignore the possibility of Sosa using performance enhancing drugs after McGwire was found to use Andro. And McGwire was a very likable guy, remember when he brought his son out after he hit the record-breaking home run. I don't remember any Roid (Andro) Rages out of him.

If Reilly wants to really set someone up, he should have gone after Luis Gonzalez, or Bonds, 2 guys who hit at least 24 more home runs last year in their late 30's than in any other year in their career.